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Monday, June 4, 2012

Lake Oswego pump station move has familiar smell

Ever since Homer Williams and Dike Dame started pushing their plan to build one of their condo jungles on the east end of Lake Oswego, we've known that there is nothing but expense in it for Portland taxpayers. The first item on the agenda was the dopey Portland-to-L.O. streetcar plan, which at least for the moment has been put to rest in the face of voter rebellion.

But Williams and Dame, prime beneficiaries of Portland's failed SoWhat District, are still talking apartments for Lake O., and the second item on their agenda is starting to come into serious play. It's the plan to move or extensively re-do the City of Portland sewage treatment plant that currently sits near the site of their condo bunker dreams.

This stinker of a facility, formally known as the Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, processes poop and rainwater from both southwest Portland and Lake O. before flushing it into the mighty Willamette. Dame is on record as saying it needs to be moved, at taxpayer expense of course. And now you'll never guess what's happening at Portland City Hall.

Yep, they're "updating" the "facilities plan," which means that an eight-figure boondoggle for the benefit of the real estate developers is surely under way. Old Matt Brown, the Williams-Dame shill who helped them pimp SoWhat when he was on the City of Portland payroll, is right in the thick of the sewage plant discussions.

Interesting to Oswegans is that the committees' meetings have been facilitated by Linda Macpherson from something called New Water ReSources. Any relation to Greg Macpherson, candidate for L.O. mayor? In any event, she's a CH2M Hill type, and big into recycling wastewater into drinking water.

They'll call it "green," they'll claim that there's a pressing need, but let's face it -- it's all about the condos. And Portlanders are about to pay for it through their sewer bills. Homer and Dike are about to take us to the cleaners yet again.

Comments (26)

I always thought the foothills were way out in Sandy or Estacada...not in an area that is a low-lying floodplain. Of course, calling a development "Floodplain" doesn't make it too appealing to people, so let's just call it "Foothills".

If I was Homer, I'd want the treatment facility redesigned as a leach field and moved to the heart of Dunthorpe, condemning an easement for the pipe works through a hundred manicured gardens, as revenge for all that streetcar meddling. Perhaps Lord Paulson would consider selling his estate at the right price.

It is imperative that government make the right decisions for us and provide for our community needs today and tomorrow.

With over a million people soon to arrive here in droves from locales of lesser livability these Foothills and other areas must be infilled with development. If that take public investment and/or incentives so be it.
If not we will end up choosing between rampant unchecked sprawl or roaming bands of newcomer vagabonds with no place to live or the transportation options they need.
It's not easy to accommodate the needs of a million people.
It will take a balanced and sustainable approach that builds on our successes with the continuation of the public-private partnership tools that have been so effective.

Otherwise we risk turning the entire region into a Clackastani backwards trek that reverses much of the progress we have made.

The Foothills "out of here" is where we will all have to flee to get away from this!
We are in for it and there is lots of money to be made for some.

Is this part of the piece of the puzzle to get us to drinking Willamette River water? We pay and pay and pay for what? For corporations to make money on all this piping and treatment and then dismantle our good Bull Run water system? Drinking "cleaned" waste-water? I don’t buy that this type of water needs to replace the good drinking water we do have now. Our water is some of the best in the nation. Looks like there is a huge movement afoot though to convince us otherwise. Will we be facing teams to change our mental models and stimulate new behaviors about water? I imagine we will need to be educated by team members. Since that may prove to be more difficult to convince our community as we know we have the best drinking water as is, I believe that the silence about this until it is too late has been the strategy for our area.

http://www.newwaterresources.com/New_Water_Resources/Home.htmlNew Water ReSources's approach challenges conventional thinking to create different learning and meaning-making experiences. It brings together a network of very special individuals in response to the needs of clients and their projects.The team members have developed specialized expertise that can change mental models, create new linkages and stimulate new behaviors about water and especially water's use and reuse.

In my opinion, this isn’t about our community health, but about the financial health for corporations and others profiting at our expense. While we are at it, which one of the two, Jefferson or Charlie would do everything possible to save our current Bull Run Drinking Water System? Or are Leonard and others on a fast track plan to do as much as possible to chip away at our good system so they won't have to deal with it? Too late to turn back? Any elected officials going along with these plans and/or not standing up for our water and water rights should be ashamed of themselves.

Be sure to find out if Clackamas County has paid $60,000 in
Willamette Shore Line Consortium (WSLC) dues in arrears.
Partial Transcript of LO Budget Meeting on 2012 May 24 Thursday
File: TSCP_LOCB_Mtng_5F5_WSLC_Sgmt_2012_05May_24Th_1801U.pdf

This is all about development folks, and very little, if anything to do with water quality issues. 1 out of the 4 people on the Oversight Committee from LO is an engineer with experience in wastewater management. The rest are the mayor, the city manager, and the director of economic development. If this was truly a plumbing problem, do you think these guys would waste their time on this? The term "Good Neighbor" is the key to the door that opens the way for more than just water problems. Here are some depressing quotes form their Sept. meeting.

Jack Hoffman:
Foothills District is viewed as a regional benefit – Portland and Lake Oswego have both made commitments to promote density and economic development within the UGB; linking the region’s urban centers is a component of this commitment and to cooperative transportation planning.

General discussion:
Urban Renewal opportunities of Foothills investments, etc. offer opportunity for payment for plant improvements outside of rates for both municipalities. Funding availability will be a challenge due to timing of Foothills development and plant enhancements.

Election politics can be particular problematic unless there is agreement between parties that mitigates polarizing responses that so frequently occurs during the election season.

It is recognized that the schedule of improvements should be defined as a function of the planning effort – triggered to development activities.

It looks like there are three shiny tanker-trucks in the photo. Why are they there? Do they dump the treated effluent into Tryon Creek, or load it into tankers and use it for, say, street maintenance (not in Portland, of course, but maybe washing down the L.O. streets?)

Where exactly could they move this plant to? It's there because it's at a low point in the basin. Gravity flow to the plant. 70% is L O and Clacamas sewage. Plant doesn't really stink either. Plant some trees around it and you'd never know it's there.

Yeah, a park that rail mafia member and former Mayor Judie Hammerstad had built and named for herself, in anticipation of her Foothills development and streetcar "vision."

And a vote for Greg Macpherson will be a vote for the return of the streetcar, more urban renewal slush funds for developers, and a continuance of the Judie Hammerstad and Jack Hoffman "new urban" agenda for Lake Oswego. Macpherson was hand picked to run for Mayor by Judie Hammerstad after she deep-sixed Jack's re-election plans because he was on a fast track to losing big-time. Macpherson may have a less arrogant and obnoxious personality, but his policies will be just as detrimental to Lake Oswegans. Count on it.

Reason(s) Briefly:
1. No access to Clackamas County Plant in
Oregon City for at least 20 years.
Further if you want to contemplate
impacting the "Trolley Trail" with a
pressurized line. I encourage a
conversation with Thelma Hagenmiller.
Pay your medical, life, and burial
insurance policies first. This can be confirmed
with a conversation between most wise (alive)
Clackamas County Commissioners.
2. Cost of pressurized line to Portland
"Big Dig" along Willamette Shore Line.
Can you spell b-a-n-k-r-u-p-t-c-y?

LO doesn't need much hep in establishing its Portland agenda. I'm sure our planners came from the same place your planners did, and mayors these days are all about "visions". I think LO politicians and staff have the idea that LO can do it better than Portland. They see the town as full of rich folks (we're not) who should be spending more on their goals. Each one of them has some business, power or ego-enhancing needs that will be fulfilled on the backs of the common man, and just like progressives everywhere, they think they are so much smarter than everyone else and should tell us how to live. It's for our own good after all. They don't respect us, and maybe don't even like people very much, and they certainly don't respect our ability to choose how we want to live. The implications here are scary.

Well, LO voters currently have the option of Greg McPherson or nobody (no other candidates have announced). I am not sure when the deadline is, but Mr. M has already been flooding the local paper with "citizen viewpoints" articles and has name recognition and establishment support. Don't know what'll happen with his ex-wife, but I'm sure it won't be fun for the taxpayers.

A mayoral candidate opposing Mac will come forth. Timing. The op Ed pieces by Mac.... pure fluff. They don't say or mean anything - designed to get his picture in the paper and make it look like he cares a d*** about local city management. He appeared out of nowhere, and his ideas reflect the same.